Saturday, 24 March 2012

Cee as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill Vol 1. Only two people identified me as Gogo. So I am guessing most of the congoers are puzzeld as to who am I cosplaying. :D

Chiaki Kuriyama plays the role of Gogo Yubari in the film Kill Bill Vol. 1

Why Gogo Yubari?
Gogo is Oren-Ishii's (Lucy Liu) personal bodyguard in the movie Kill Bill Volume 1. She was a crazy girl of seventeen who fought Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) in the house of the Blue Leaves. I cosplayed Gogo because I know that kids my age don't know Kill Bill and I guess cosplaying the character will promote the VERY AWESOME MOVIE.

I had so much fun that day! Everybody did a good job in portraying their characters. Some people were amazed by my weapon and asking where I got it. Well, I DID IT with the help of papang! I am so happy that they appreciated my hard work.

What happened that day?

We arrived just in time for the ANIME category cosplayers to do their catwalk

Well, we arrived late! Not actually late for the competition, but late for Optimus Prime and Iron Man. After arriving, my friends told me that earlier, there was an Optimus Prime and Iron Man mascots who graced the event with their awesome moves and poses. I was like "NOOOOOO!!" and I learned my lesson and from now on, I will go as early as possible. Maybe next time they can get Kaname to visit the event and I shall be the first girl to have a photo of him with me. LOL.

Spectating was my plan at first...

Well yeah, I originally planned to be a part of the audience and cheer for my friends. I did prepare for Gogo Yubari but I was not totally sure if I will be able to join the competition. Luckily, we did not have any hospital duty that day! YAAY! I was practically jumping up and down after receiving a message from my dutymate that the duty that day was cancelled. :)

Anyway, here's what happened on that day...

Since I was already there, I pulled out some of my friends and other cosplayers to take photos of them. :D

Sheila as Cruela De Vil

Edz as Katara of The Last Airbender

Jev as Kasumi of Dead or Alive

At last, Azumi arrived! She was Baby Doll of Sucker Punch. I am totally in character here.

The Rodriguez siblings went as the Bleach group. Made me want to go as Ichigo on the next day. >_<

I think I'm watching the real Sucker Punch movie. O_O

And then, THE CATWALK!

Azumi's catwalk! She did great and she really looked like Baby Doll that day!

Azumi was part of the first batch of Movie Cosplayers

First batch of Movie category

How I did in the catwalk? Well, I REALLY DON'T KNOW! I did not practice that part so I just imagined Gogo Yubari and did her moves and expression (laughing and getting angry). So if you saw my catwalk/skit, PLEASE DO tell me how I did it for I was out of my mind when I was doing it. LOL.

Gogo Yubari catwalk

WAAH! I really don't want to see a video of my catwalk. >_< I can imagine myself laughing and getting mad, waving the manriki like hell and jumping up and down.

Second batch of Movie category

Picture taking time!!

After the catwalk, me and my mom started to take photos of the other cosplayers. What's the use of going there if you don't have any photos with them, right? :)

I think you can identify some of these characters.

BAH! I was tired of being in-character all the time. LOL. I can't smile when I wanted to so what I did was I "play" with my friends during the event. :D

Here I am posing with Jeff for a few fight scenes. :D

Nah, we ain't enemies. We're friends. :D

Then I started photobombing for kicks. :D

I learned that when you are an antagonist of a film, people will start on asking you to do torture poses on other people. :/

So the following photos ain't my doing. The ASKED me to do it. :DD

Torturing Hitler:

Mom had her photos taken with some cosplayers too. :)

I met new friend that day. Meet Michelle! :)

~Overall, it was an awesome experience! I had soo much fun that I did not get to pay attention to the program proper. My friends were awesome in portraying their respective characters.

~Thank you for reading and watch out for the third part of the MCTV MMIX report!

LINKS:
~For the my whole album of the event, click THIS.
~For Part 1: link
~For Part 3: link

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

I really don’t know what my greatest achievement is before writing this post. I am just an ordinary girl. I don’t have any extraordinary talent or an intelligent mind to brag as an achievement. But after thinking a lot, I actually realized that my greatest achievement was not difficult to look for

-----

I was never really close to my mother. I respect her, yes. I love her and I pursued the course that she desired for me and I studied hard to get good grades. But we did not have any kind of an attachment that differ us from others. No moment to have girly chitchats or bonding time to learn more of each other. Then this hobby called COSPLAYING came in to my life.

Cosplayers from the recent cosplay event in Zamboanga

What is cosplay?

Cosplaying or COSTUME PLAY is a hobby where fans of anime, manga games and many more dress up as their favourite character and pretend to be that character in an event, party or onstage in a competition. Cosplay Competitions are usually held in places where cosplaying is accepted and all cosplayers of different shapes and sizes come together to compete for the prize, the money or fame.

I tried cosplaying once and I became addicted to it. The more I watch an anime series or movie, the more that I became attached to it. And the time came when I entered competitions.

Previous cosplays

I cannot deny that at first, my parents did not understand the thought of spending a sum of money for costumes and wigs. My mother, in particular, was a little bit against it. According to her, it was a waste of time and effort to dress up “funny” onstage.

It all started at home...

At home, I showed her photos of my cosplay on the Internet and when I was in a competition, the “mother stage” nature of my mom emerged and she started helping me in choosing characters, shopping for fabric and looking for a talented seamstress to sew complicated costumes.

Then this competition came along and preparations started. My mother accompanied me in piecing together parts of my costume. From the choice of fabric to making the costume itself! While doing this, we shopped together and had a lot of moments laughing in the littlest things. I felt that I can actually treat my mother as my best friend, a thought that never came in my mind back when we have the usual time together.

At home, a wonderful costume was made and a bond between mother and child was renewed in a positive way.

My mom made my skirt for the competition at home.

The day of the competition came and I just hoped that I’ll enjoy the event and meet new friends with the same interest. At first I was a little bit hesitant to bring my mother. First, it will be a long event and I was afraid that she will get tired of waiting and waiting for hours. Second, she might find me weird doing poses and stuff. But I put those things aside and bought my mother a ticket to the event.

Here comes the day of the competition...

I never knew that it will be the cosplay event of my lifetime! My mother suddenly became my manager, photographer, makeup artist and my number one fan. She was so supportive, she was actually the one who pushed me to take photos with the other cosplayers and whispered me nice words when I was so nervous because of the competition. She actually asked me to take photos of her with other cosplayers!

My character during the competition: Gogo Yubari

During the event, one friend commented that I have a cool mom. Yes. Those words made me realize that I have a cool mother, a very supporting fan and a loving friend. My friends told me that I was lucky to have a mother that supports my cosplaying and even went with me during the competition. From that moment on, I appreciated everything my mother did for me. I loved her more after I saw how supportive she was in my hobby.

She took photos of me during the event

My mom with other cosplayers. She actually enjoyed the event!

Oh, my achievement you say?

It was achieving a great bond with my mother. Through cosplaying, we learned a lot of things together. I just love those moments that I know I would never ever experience if something like cosplaying would not enter our lives. And a little proof of this bond is when I won a special award from the competition. The trophy does not only mean that I stood out among other competitors. The trophy means that my mom and I did a great job in working together to create a wonderful cosplay. For me, the trophy says “To the cosplayer and to the person behind her cheering for her: CONGRATULATIONS!”

It was a GREATNESS that started at home and I am sure that it will grow there in each passing day of our lives.

I won a special award for my costume and portrayal. This one is for you, mom!

Saturday, 3 March 2012

Hello there! Been laying low and not posting for a while. I was pretty busy with school work and only this time that I got a breather from all of those. So here's a post on how my latest wig order turned out (and a little about wig shopping and choosing your cosplay wig).

So my next cosplan is Lelouch! (YAAY! Been planning on doing Lelouch for quite some time and that Code Geass photoshoot that my friend came up with gave me the chance to actually start preparing!)

We actually planned to do the plug suit version but we decided to do the uniform version first to see if we look good in our chosen characters. I was chosen to be Lelouch and I was totally happy. I have always wanted to be C.C. but I am more comfortable crossplaying nowadays and Lelouch is the male character of Code Geass that I can really connect to.

So back on our wig ordering.
I started to go wig hunting online to look for a proper shop that sells a Lelouch wig. Of course I considered buying a heat resistant wig, with Japanese Kanekalon fibers so that it will last long for future use. I had a good experience wearing a high quality wig and it is really worth your money than buying a cheap wig which will eventually have cancer that will lead to a balding wig cap. I browsed the wig shop where I usually order but judging the activity on her shop's account, it looked like it was in hiatus so I turned to those shops that my friends had good transactions with and browsed their albums. At last I found one that sells an on hand Lelouch wig. (I'll write an article on wigs in the future). My friend had a costume made from this shop and had a good experience transacting with the shop owner so I gave it a try. The wig brand was Lucaille and the styling was almost like Lelouch's hair so I thought it was a pretty good deal. Plus the wig comes with a free wig cap and shipping was free so, yay!

BTW: ON HAND? LUCAILLE? You don't know these words? Don't worry! I'll write a blog post on wigs in the near future so watch out!

This is the photo of the wig in one of the shop's albums:

Lucaille wig available on that shop.

So after transacting with the owner, payment was settled on the next day and the wig was expected to arrive the following day.

THE WIG ARRIVED and I was pretty much excited in doing a wig trial that night but when I opened the package, a different wig was inside (or so I think).

The wig had full bangs and was not similar to the product photo. My friends commented (on the photo that I took wearing the wig) that it looked like Rukia's (of Bleach) wig. I don't know. Maybe the actual product does not look exactly the same as the photo. ~Sigh
How discouraging.

What really blew me off is the wig cap that comes free with the order. My mind went "WTF?!" when this was with the package, instead of a wig cap:

WIG CAP FTW!

Because of these errors, I sent a message to the shop, saying that they sent me the wrong wig and I received a netted-hand-glove instead of a wig cap. The shop owner explained that it was his/her sibling's fault and he told me to have an online chat with this sibling regarding my order. It sounded suspicious because the day before, this shop owner said that HE/SHE shipped the item. HE/SHE said that he/she brought the item with him/her to his/her office and shipped it after confirming my payment thru bank deposit. Now he/she is blaming his/her sibling because of the error.

...offered to change the wig that I had to the right one.
Then when I went online and messaged this shop's account, the sibling apparently admitted his/her mistake and was willing to take photos of their on hand wigs to let me choose what I want. I asked them how many Lelouch wigs they have there to make such mistake (and considering this wig was not part of a batch order). The person on the other side of the conversation explained that they have lots of wigs there and offered to change the wig that I had to the "right one". They will shoulder the shipping of the wig to their place and shipping of the proper wig to me.

AND I DID NOT AGREE TO THAT.
Yes I did not. I did not want to get into another transaction with them. I was afraid that they might send the wrong wig again or never send anything at all. So I just told them that and ended the conversation with a 'thank you'.

It will happen to any person, to any online shop... so I won't mention the name of the shop. It could happen to an online shop you just discovered or to a shop that you trust. So be ready with these kinds of things.

THAT SOLUTION PRESENTED BY THE OWNERS WAS GOOD!
Yes, I know it is the right thing to do after something like this happens to you. You should do it if ever you will be in the same situation. BUT AS FOR ME, I chose to keep the wig. As what I have said earlier, I was just making sure that I have a wig at the end of the day.

~It was a stressful day and that wig was my saving grace but it turned out to be THE MOST STRESSFUL MOMENT OF THE YEAR for me. Oh well. I hope if this will happen to me again (I AM NOT WISHING IT!) I hope I'll be in a better mood to deal with it.

`~If you had trouble understanding a few things in this post, stay tuned for my next info post. It will be all about wigs!